Never Defy a Vixen by Dawn Brower
What’s a lady to do when her parents’ death leaves her family destitute?
For Lady Wilhelmina Neverhartt, that means a marriage to a much older man willing to support her, along with her four younger siblings. What she didn’t expect was for her groom to die on their wedding day and leave her fate in charge of his heir, Zachary Ward, the new Duke of Graystone. Billie hates having anyone order her around and refuses to be the good little lady his grace expects. Instead, she makes several demands, expecting him to heel to her commands.
What happens is a battle of wills that might bring the walls down around them. Zachary finds Lady Wilhelmina vexing and enchanting at the same time. He begins to defy her on purpose to see what she scheme she might concoct next, and along the way, it stops being a game, but more of a mission to win the lady’s heart.
Only a compromise will bring these two together, and it might be too impossible a feat for either of them to accept.
- File Name:never-defy-a-vixen-by-dawn-brower.epub
- Original Title:Never Defy a Vixen
- Creator:Dawn Brower
- Language:en
- Identifier:UUID:89C02F2F-EAC4-44FF-A027-7BBFC70152DA
- Publisher:Monarchal Glenn Press
- File Size:724.313 KB
Table of Content
- 1. Cover
- 2. Half Title
- 3. Title Page
- 4. Copyright
- 5. Dedication
- 6. Epigraph
- 7. Contents
- 8. Prologue
- 9. Chapter 1
- 10. Chapter 2
- 11. Chapter 3
- 12. Chapter 4
- 13. Chapter 5
- 14. Chapter 6
- 15. Chapter 7
- 16. Chapter 8
- 17. Chapter 9
- 18. Chapter 10
- 19. Chapter 11
- 20. Epilogue
- 21. Afterword
- 22. Excerpt: Never Disregard a Wallflower
- Prologue
- Chapter 1
- 23. Excerpt: Never Dare a Hellion
- Prologue
- 24. Neverhartts Logo
- 25. About The Author
- 26. Also by Dawn Brower
- 27. Acknowledgments
Never Defy a Vixen, Book 1 of The Neverhartt series, was about Lady Wilhelmina "Billie" Neverhartt, eldest daughter of Lord Richard Neverhartt, the late Earl of Seville and the late Lady Augusta, the Countess of Seville, and His Grace Zachary "Zach" Ward, son of the late Lord Andrew Ward, nephew of the recently deceased Duke of Graystone (his father's brother), and therefore the new Duke of Graystone. Billie's father and mother had both returned from their travels abroad with a mysterious illness that quickly took their lives. On her deathbed, Lady Augusta encouraged Billie to be strong for her siblings and to go to the Duke of Grayston, who had been her father's godfather. Lady Augusta said he would help them after her death. Not long later, Lady Augusta drew her last breath. At that moment, Billie hated both her parents. She considered them both utterly selfish for the way they squandered their money, thus causing their children to have to seek out help in any way they could to survive. A month after the death of her parents, Billie did as her mother said and went to see the Duke. Having kept her waiting for a lengthy period of time, the Duke showed up. After a short conversation, in which the Duke was quite haughty, he told Billie he would help her and her siblings, but she would have to marry him that day and bear him a son because he did not want to leave his title and estate to his "scoundrel of a nephew". With no choice, Billie was forced to agree. Within hours of the agreement, the wedding took place. As soon as the nuptials were completed, the Duke demanded the right to consummate the marriage immediately. Just minutes before that could happen, the Duke died in Billie's bedroom. Upon his uncle's death, Zach, who had never set foot in any of his uncle's properties, hurried to Graystone Castle. He had heard of his uncle's recent marriage and had already formed negative opinions of the new Duchess. Upon seeing her and her siblings, Zach immediately demanded they pack their things and move out before dark. After several confrontations with Billie, Zach decided he was going to have them move to the dower house...but then he found out it was not habitable, so he had to come up with a different solution. Not long after he had arrived at the estate, several of Zach's friends put in an appearance as well. When one of them told Zach he wouldn't mind getting to know Billie a little better (wink), it angered Zach. He had to admit to himself that he had been attracted to her from the first moment he saw her...he just didn't want to be. As Zach got to know Billie's siblings better, the more he came to realize what a handful they were...especially the twins, Carolina and Christiana. He decided to send their 13-year-old brother, Damon, who had inherited their father's title of the new Earl of Seville, to Eton. Where the twin sisters were concerned, Zach determined they both needed to attend finishing school to help curtail their wild manners. The other sister, Theodora "Teddy", would be sent to London to take part in the Season. This was a short, but sweet book. Everything move at a rapid pace, including the feelings between Zach and Billie. I don't know if there really was time for chemistry or even a true passion to develop between them but there was definitely a mutual attraction, and sparks flew every time they were near each other. There was a lot of angst and drama, caused mainly by the twins, but also by Zach, but there wasn't much humor. There truly wasn't much character development in any of them. Zach was haughty for almost the entire story, while Billie was anxious about her family's circumstances. Theodora and Damon weren't mentioned too much, but the twins were hellions throughout the entire book, constantly causing one issue after another, forcing Zach to send them away earlier than he had intended. Other than that, Zach and Billie didn't really have time to get to know each other. They fought more than they did anything else. They never spent any time together where they didn't argue, so they hardly had time to share anything about their respective pasts or families. More than anything, Zach had a "poor little me" chip on his shoulders, which didn't really make for a good Hero. Billie was ... weak. She let all her siblings walk all over her and, apparently, her parents had constantly taken advantage of her love for her siblings and left her in charge while they went galavanting around the world before they died. In all honesty, it was a good novella. It just happened too fast to be anything else. It had the potential to be even better, but it bombed too quickly. It was neither a 5-star story nor worthy to be added to the Keeper for the Shelves collection.